PIERCING PROBLEMS FOR PARENTS

My daughter is 15 years old (16 in August) and wants a piercing job below her lip to add to the nose ring and earrings. The place that did her nose job now say that she must be 16 years old. Apparently between 16 and 18 she would need parental consent.

The peer pressure for piercing (not to mention tattoos) is immense and the application of legal guidelines ( at least here in Italy) seems very loose.

There are no shortage of my daughter’s friends, below 16, who already have holes in various parts of their face and one is even planning a nipple piercing – I have no doubt he will find a place which will do this no questions asked.

But I suppose things could always be worse!

We had a big battle over the nose which, it now seems, was actually done illegally. The risk of infection is one of the worries but also making irreversible changes to the body (particularly the face) is something we are concerned about. Obviously to a rabid teenager who knows EVERYTHING, we are outdated, ill-informed squares who know nothing.

Parenting is a constant battle and piercing/tattooing is one area where fashion trends have escalated so rapidly that legal and ethical arguments are finding it hard to keep up.

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5 Comments:

Lots of people have those lip piercings, but I’ve seen the results of long-term wear on teeth and gum tissue and it’s not pretty a decade or two later. Chances are your daughter will wear it for a while and then give it up, but you never know. I have provided horrific photographs of piercings gone wrong to several parents over the years. Look for the one where the girl lost part of her skull from a severely infected piercing and chat with her about why she really wants it.
It is so hard to draw clear lines when other parents don’t draw any. I’m thrilled to say my son is so not into piercing, I’m crossing my fingers for your daughter. Good luck!!!

I have had this conversation with many parennts who have come into my shop. Piercings rarely get infected if done professionally and most importantly if they are taken care of properly. The good thing about them (as opposed to tattoos) they are not permanent, you take them out and they heal very quickly, they are not like ear piercings and do not last without jewelry in the piercing.

I believe it is definitely up to the parents. And one definitely needs guidelines (for example: limiting it to one piercing, or spacing out piercings with at least a year inbetween each, waiting period to ensure it is something you really want etc..)But have seen piercings work well for many families as a reward/punishment. They are easy to remove and therefore a very valid bargaining chip.

An update. We did finally gave in and my daughter now has the central labret piercing as shown in the first photo. No infections or other bad consequences as yet and the dentist seems calm about it. I’m getting used to it too and it’s not as bad as I feared.